By Chance
by Quite the Spoon
Summary: Draco and Luna rekindle their feelings for each other one night at the Leaky Cauldron. Rated T for implied adult themes. (Dedicated to my BFF 9ever)


Four years had already gone by since the Dark Lord had been defeated on Hogwarts grounds. Four years later, and many were still trying to recover from the devastation of the war. Typically, the public made sure that Hogwarts was the first thing to be restored after battle. While direct battles did not occur in other places around the wizarding world, devastation lingered everywhere. The first place to open its doors—aside from the wizard school itself—was a quaint pub with a multi-floor inn upstairs; the Leaky Cauldron. That was exactly where Luna Lovegood, former Ravenclaw student, found herself that night.

It was an unusually quiet night for the pub, but that didn't bother Luna very much. She preferred the quiet. Most people did these days, but Luna had been quite fond of silence even before the war.

_Clank... Clank… CLANK!_

So much for silence.

The series of clanks continued for about five minutes before a distressed blonde sprinted down from the main staircase and through the kitchen doors. Luna wasn't sure what was going on, but by the sound of the woman swearing loudly from the other room, it couldn't have been very good. Curiosity won over as she pushed herself from her spot beside the hearth and peeked her head through the swinging doors.

"Is everything alright in here?" Luna called out, her eyes searching over the room to see where the distress signal may have been coming from. Suddenly, a flash of yellow bobbed up from behind a peculiar boxy machine that Luna wasn't familiar with.

"Yeah, everything's fi—LUNA!" She recognized the voice automatically as Hannah Abbott, a fellow member of Dumbledore's Army during her school years. Hannah and Luna had only gotten really close in her sixth year since they had a few classes together. Although Hannah was a year older, she had to repeat her own sixth year as an effect of leaving after her mother's murder. It was actually Luna's understanding that helped Hannah get through all of the stress during war preparations.

"Hannah! I hardly recognized you earlier when you passed by!" And, it was true. The two hadn't seen each other since Hannah dropped out of Hogwarts permanently when her father fell ill. In the course of those three years Hannah had aged dramatically. Her hair was missing its bounce and sheen; her eyes seemed, well, sadder.

Hannah gave a small smile as if she knew exactly what Luna was thinking and dropped back down to mess with what she had been before.

"Sorry," she called. "This blasted dishwasher seems to be failing on me. Muggle technology: what is it even good for?" She popped back up moments later, dusting her hands off on her apron. "So, love, what'd'ya like? Butterbeer? Firewhiskey, perhaps? We've got _Ogden's_." She said the last word as if it was supposed to have a positive effect on her.

Luna simply smiled softly, shaking her head. "Oh, no thank you. I'm fine, really! I don't—"

"Drink?" Hannah finished with a sigh, her hands on her hips. "Fine… At least sit down so I can get you a cup of cocoa so we can catch up? It's been far too long."

For the next three hours, the two women sat around the fireplace discussing what they had been up to since the war and gossiping over what news they had heard on their friends. Luna explained how her father had retired from the Quibbler after she'd found him out for lying about well over half of the creatures she had sought after. How she had then sold the rights to the newspaper and moved as far away from her father as possible.

Hannah's story hadn't been much more cheerful either. After her father finally passed, she began working here at the Leaky Cauldron for Tom who'd left the pub to her when he died last month. On the other hand, she'd been seeing Neville Longbottom and personally thought things were beginning to get pretty serious.

They'd sat in silence for a few minutes afterwards, taking everything in and sipping their hot chocolate, when a figure slipped in through the front door. That's when Hannah jumped up from her armchair and collected Luna's mostly-empty mug as if she'd forgotten something very important.

"Late as usual," Hannah muttered to herself as she strode back to the kitchen, leaving a rather confused Luna by the fire. "OH!" she called over her shoulder, "I forgot to mention I'd invited someone." Then she disappeared.

Luna remained firmly in her seat as the cloaked figure drew closer to her. _I could make a run for it…_ she thought. But for some reason, she found herself unable to move, fighting against herself on fleeing or staying.

"Honestly… _you_?" The figure groaned. The voice was obviously a male, and something about it beckoned to Luna.

"Excuse me?" She replied. "What do you mean '_you'_?"

The man scoffed as if she had said the wrong thing and pushed his hood back from his head. His hair was the first thing she noticed; silvery blond and nearly the same color as his skin. Draco Malfoy.

"Oh, don't give me that look." Draco said, pulling off his cloak and placing it by the fireplace. "Abbott invited me here. Said she 'owed me one,' whatever that means. This, however… I was not expecting _this._"

Her eyes carefully followed him as he plopped down in the seat Hannah was previously in, taking in his words carefully. Luna was usually pretty good about figuring things out, but just this once, she was stumped.

His eyes met her own, a sneer spread across his face. "Maybe…" he muttered, but she would never know where that thought was going; he dropped it—and the eye contact—as soon as it had occurred to him.

They sat there in an awkward silence for a few moments before Luna spoke up. "Since when are you and Hannah on good enough terms that you come when she calls?" A sharp laugh erupted from his lips.

"I told you," said Malfoy dryly, "she owes me one."

"Yes, but you also said, 'whatever that means'," Luna remarked, folding her arms across her chest. He easily caught on to her change in attitude and crossed his arms and puffed his own chest out to mock her.

"Considering all I've done for her recently, she _does_ owe me one. I wasn't about to protest." She wasn't about to ask, either. Of course, she guessed he knew she wouldn't, which was why he wasn't giving much details already. Or maybe that was just him.

More silence.

Luna watched the second hand tick by as they sat there quietly. The soft crackling of the logs seemed to resonate throughout the whole room, it was so quiet. Of course, Draco was the one to break the silence this time.

"I was actually hoping I'd see you soon," he admitted a bit sheepishly, much unlike his usual tone of voice.

"Why's that?" Luna asked, turning her head towards him, her brow now raised.

"Well, I mean… after the last time we met," Draco said, trailing off once he found something on the wall equally as interesting.

She sighed to herself, trying to recall the last time she had seen him; nothing was coming to her. "What about it?"

"I… I just haven't been able to shake you from my thoughts."

Of course! How could she forget? The last time she'd seen him was around Christmas and they had ended up under the mistletoe—completely by chance. _"It's infested, you know."_ She'd told him. He didn't know. _"With nargles..."_ she continued, unfazed by his expression. Those few words were just the beginning of an eventful night. And, while they had gotten out of kissing under the mistletoe, he did leave her with a peck on the cheek before the end of the night.

"Hmmm," she sighed, going over the events in her head.

He eyed her curiously before speaking again. "It actually bothered me for a bit afterwards. I couldn't stop myself from wondering what _could_ have happened."

Luna glanced at him briefly, a slight blush creeping across her cheeks. "I wondered the same thing; even still. But, Draco, you couldn't possibly think—"

"Why not?" He snapped, cutting her off. "Things don't have to be the way they are now, you know that. Time changes things… It changes _people_." He balled his fist, starting to stand up. Luna stood up before him, however, which for some reason only frustrated him further. He stood up as well and they both faced each other.

"Draco, we've gone over this," Luna said, biting her bottom lip and averting her eyes from his.

"So I fought for the wrong side! I was _scared_, Luna. I had no choice!" She could hear the pain in his voice and felt guilty for it. After all, she was the one who brought it up in the first place.

Luna met his gaze which the both held for longer than was necessary. Without any time for her to react or withdraw, his arms were around her and his lips crashed against her own. She was in shock if only for a moment before a warm sensation washed over her and she found herself kissing him back.

Those next moments were a complete blur to Luna. Everything had gone so fast that she couldn't be sure if she had dreamed it up or if it had actually happened. But if she had her doubts the next morning, they were confirmed by her waking up in one of the upstairs rooms with only a bed sheet covering her up. The only thing that made the situation uncomfortable was waking up—under those circumstances—to a smirking Hannah in the doorway.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" Hannah said, a wide grin spread across her face. "Or should I say _afternoon_?"

Luna groaned, pulling the sheet up to cover her head. It didn't help much, because she could still hear her friend laughing from the other side of the room.

"That went well, I take it?"

Another groan: this time out of embarrassment over the fact that the previous night's acts were so obvious. Of course, that only made Hannah laugh more.

In response, Luna blindly chucked a pillow in her direction. The door clicked shut, and she heard Hannah's laughs fading away down the hall.

A/N: Sorry for the crap ending and lack of HannahxLuna, even though I know you were secretly hoping for it. LOVE YOU, BOO.


End file.
